


Seeing

by chaineddove



Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-04
Updated: 2007-07-04
Packaged: 2017-10-28 11:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaineddove/pseuds/chaineddove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are several ways to see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stillskies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillskies/gifts).



> Set sometime before chapter 126 or so.

There is a loud crash and a howl from the direction of the kitchen, then a string of exclamations about everything in this crazy house growing legs and walking off on its own when no one’s watching.

Maru giggles and peers through the thick curved lenses of Watanuki’s glasses. They warp the world around her in a way that she hasn’t experienced before. “Silly Watanuki,” she says. “Most things can’t grow legs and walk off on their own.”

“Most things can’t,” Moro concedes, swinging her legs off the edge of the porch, “except the ones that can.”

“Yes, except the ones that can,” Maru agrees. “Do you want to see?”

“I want to see.” Moro takes the glasses they stole from the kitchen while Watanuki was busy splashing water on his face and turns them upside down to look curiously through them. Everything is fuzzy and strangely big—the contours of the bush on her right, the fence, the sheets hanging on the clothesline, the throbbing splotch of darkness just outside the gate, wanting to come in. Moro hands the glasses back. “I don’t know if I like that.”

“It’s big,” Maru agrees. “Today it’s bigger than yesterday.”

“Maybe it’s just the glasses,” Moro tells her. “Mistress hasn’t said anything about it yet.”

Then again, she doesn’t see things the way they do. She walks through the intricate, glowing pattern of magic keeping this place here and not elsewhere as though it wasn’t there at all. She could probably see it if she wanted to. She must have been able to see it before she had Maru and Moro to see it for her, but the powerful can afford to be blind to the little things. It is their lacework pattern to keep in repair now, and so it is their dark spot just outside, where they cannot quite reach. They can stand hand in hand at the gate and look at it and feel it look back, but there is nothing outside the gate, of course, and they don’t want to fall down like empty dolls, so they do not reach out to chase it away. They watch and wait and hope they are wrong and it is not growing.

“Maybe it’s just the glasses,” Maru says, willing to be comforted. “I don’t know how Watanuki can see, with everything big and fuzzy like that all the time.”

“But Watanuki can’t see on his own, either. He runs into things.”

“Watanuki runs into things anyway.”

They giggle. Moro yawns and puts her head on Maru’s shoulder. “I’m sleepy,” she admits.

Maru takes her hand, twining their fingers together. “Me too,” she says quietly. “Do you want to take a nap?”

“I don’t want to,” Moro tells her. Every time they sleep, they wake a little slower. It’s always a little further to come back, and every time they wake, their tiny world, consisting of house and garden and fence, seems a little more like a dream. “Not yet.”

Maru is saved from answering by the appearance of a fuming Watanuki, who crashes into the shouji screen as he stomps out onto the porch. “Give them back!” he demands.

“Give what back?” Maru says.

“What?” Moro echoes her. They look up at him with perfect innocence, not that he can appreciate their expressions, squinting like that.

“I want my glasses!” he howls. “Dinner is going to burn! The house will burn down!”

“The world is ending!” Moro exclaims cheerfully.

“It’s ending!” Maru corroborates with a giggle. “Well, not yet,” she adds then, and holds the glasses up for Watanuki to take. “Here, you can have them. We don’t want them anyway.”

“No, we don’t want them.”

Watanuki puts the spectacles back on, snarling. “You know I can’t see without these!”

“Are you sure you want to see?” Maru asks.

“Yes, are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!” Watanuki exclaims. “What a stupid question! Why wouldn’t I want to see!”

“Dinner’s going to burn!” Moro reminds him helpfully.

“The house will burn down!” Maru tacks on gleefully. Watanuki yelps and runs for the kitchen, running into the shouji screen again despite the glasses.

“Silly Watanuki,” Moro says. The dark spot is still there, but it is smaller now that she doesn’t have the glasses to her face, so they can pretend it’s shrinking.

“Silly silly Watanuki,” Maru agrees.

A butterfly flutters lazily by. They follow it with their eyes for a few moments before hopping off the porch. “Let’s play tag.”

“Let’s play. You’re it!”

They take off across the garden with shrieks and giggles, purposefully ignoring the darkness that is watching. Let it stare a little longer.


End file.
